Horror in the Woods

Do you like scary stories? How about scary stories set in deep, dark woods well off the beaten path? If so, then The Ritual by Adam Nevill is the perfect book for you.

Four old college friends get together for a vacation backpacking in a very remote area of Sweden. Unfortunately, a couple of the guys are unprepared for their trip even before encountering the creepy unknown thing in the woods. Behind schedule, the group decides to veer off of the trail and bushwhack through the woods to make up for lost time. (Never a good idea, but especially bad when backpacking in remote areas that very few people ever tread.) On the map, it looks easy – cut through a slim section of woodland and then pop out near the river and enjoy the evening in a tourist hut. Unfortunately, the forest is not easy, the friends are unprepared, and there is something awful living in these woods.

From the very first page, The Ritual pulls in the reader and does not let go until the end. Suspenseful and surprising, this is a very fast paced book. Nevill does a great job of both building tension and developing the relationships between the characters. The sense of dread throughout the book definitely places this story strongly within the horror genre; in spite of this, the story does have glimmers of light and is not all gloom and doom, but readers should be prepared for more than a few gruesome scenes.

- Sarah, guest poster for Ravenous Readers

Take an Epic Journey with The Passage

Meet Zero, whose previous name, Patient Zero, has long been forgotten. Before he had that name, he was a scientist called Tim Fanning who went on an expedition to Bolivia and came home with a virus that changed everything. When you pick up this huge book that spans places all over the world, and enough time to follow generations of characters, you get to find out what happens after a top-secret military project tried to use Zero's illness as a weapon, and also what happens to the people he meets and infects along the way  -- their everyday, horrifying, and heroic stories will surprise you.

Now that the second volume of Justin Cronin's trilogy is out, this is the perfect time to pick up The Passage and catch up. (The new one's called The Twelve.) If you're a fan of epic-length genre fiction that straddles horror and sci-fi, like Stephen King's The Stand, or Robert McCammon's Swan Song, you'll love Cronin's blend of action, world-building, and his carefully-thought-out take on vampires (don't worry, it's nothing like Twilight).

While You Wait for Gone Girl

I just finished Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, the plotty thriller that everyone and their brother has a hold on this summer. No spoilers: it's as good as they say it is, keep it on your list! Here are some lesser-known titles to tide you over until your hold arrives.

Last year's must-read plot twist novel was Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson. Reminiscent of Memento, the main character wakes up every morning missing most of her memory. She sees a forty-something in the mirror, but the last thing she remembers is being a twenty-something college student. This is not her beautiful house, and certainly not her beautiful husband. If you haven't read it yet, now is the perfect chance to peer into her diary as she tries to piece together the missing years. Read on for more ominous thrillers!